A journal of an Indonesian in The Netherlands

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The Balance after Beijing 2008

Today, Dutch Olympic Team landed at Schiphol. They took 7 gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze medals (the 12th on the list).

One winning athlete I won’t forget is swimmer Maarten van der Weijden. He won gold medal at 10 km swimming at open sea, his record 1:52:51. An inspiring story he has: 7 years ago Van der Weijden suffered from Leukemia, he underwent several treatments and was declared Leukemia free. After that he started to train again focusing on his goal, he was going for gold.

I also admire the Dutch female Water Polo team. They were underrated but they beat the USA ladies with 9-8 (7 of the Nine goals were made by one single athlete, Danielle de Bruijn).

G, my daughter told me that her country (she meant NL) has won many medals and mine (RI) not. G nduk, it is not true, Indonesia won 1 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze medals. Or, by second thought, 2 gold? Cause Ranomi Kromowidjojo (member of Dutch winning team of 4 x 100 m estafette Free Style swimming, far left at the pic) has a Javanese-Suriname Father and Dutch mother.

My Beijing moments to remember: The Usain thunderBolt, Men Basketball Final between USA – Spain, what a thrilling match, Viva Espana!, Samuel Wanjiru, you are the man! Wanjiru did 42 km 195 m in 2:06:32! My last record for 10 km was 47 min. (sorry, false comparison, I am a recreational jogger). I do not include Michael Phelps on my list because it was expected that he would set that incredible achievement (newest technology in swimsuits etc.).

At the end, I hope that there would be no doping cases afterwards. Sport must be cleansed from those dangerious stuff.

Hey Lorraine. I’m sad now that there’s nothing good to watch on TV except Australian idol and the American so you think you can dance. Andra loved watching the olympics. Most memorable moment? Me watching that open water swimming marathon, feeling gald it’s not me!🙂